In life, everyone needs to make an apology, you need to make people think you mean it, you should mean it anyway if you want to make genuine. Life skills! It often happens that you have mixed feelings, that the subject is not a simple situation, not black and white, but the apology is needed to smooth things out, and you are willing to apologize in order to do that.

Steps

1

Know what you did wrong. Whether it was on purpose or an accident, admit that you did it. People like honesty.

2

Keep it simple, being careful not to start up a fight, a disagreement, or open up the situation for further discussion or recriminations. Stick to the idea of re-establishing a good relationship. This is not the time to work out and dissect events.

3

Be prepared to meet resistance. Be prepared for it to take some time for your apology to be processed. This may be a long moment, a few minutes, or even days or weeks. Be patient and hopeful. Sometimes apologies have to be repeated. Don't let pride keep you from calling or writing again. The injured party may have trouble calming down, they may remain hurt or angry, and you must persist within reason. It is important to keep follow up messages light and casual. One must understand when to stop the effort as well.

4

It helps to say, "This is a genuine apology, I mean it from the bottom of my heart, I have thought about how wrong I was in that matter, and I hope you will accept my apology.

5

Be polite. An apology will be better accepted if it is sincere.

6

Remind the person of all the positive history you have between you. For instance, "I am sorry I forgot your birthday after all these years. Your friendship means so much to me I hope you will forgive me."

7

Try not to smile. Smiling generally expresses happiness but you should be serious. If you want to smile, try to have an apologetic smile.

8

In some situations a small gift may serve as a token of apology. Often people use flowers, or pay for lunch if they are eating together. You might say, "Let me get this check, it's my pleasure." If you know a person's favorite things this can be more personal. Wrap a small gift in attractive paper or bag and bring it with you for your apology; it will serve as a little sweetener to the situation. Or say, let's go to lunch, it would be my treat.

9

Express yourself. Refer to the person, talk about what you have done, and why it won't happen again. Don't say, "I hope." It should NEVER happen again.

10

Don't do it again! An apology is saying sorry. Sorry means not doing it again. It's supposed to be genuine.

11

In some more complicated situations it may serve better to say, "I will work on this negative quality that I have of bringing things up at the wrong time. I see that it is creating problems for everyone."

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Make a new date and be on time. Then make another date and be on time again. There's nothing stronger to show what you mean than actually doing what you mean. Don't make a big deal of it, the dates are the important things, go out and have fun. If you have only one date and you were late, then you were late for 100% of your dates. If you have a hundred dates and you were late just once, that percentage becomes insignificant.

I have made several genuine apologies to my friend. She accepted my apology but she said she doesn't want to be friends. I'd like to at least be civil, but she wants no contact at all. What can I do?

wikiHow Contributor

The only thing you can really do is just leave the situation as it is. She may or may not be open to positive communication in the future after she's had time to think things over but until then, the more you attempt to talk to her, the more resistant she'll be.

How do I write an apology letter to my teacher for making noises when people were talking?

wikiHow Contributor

Dear {teacher's name},
I am sorry for interrupting your class and being disrespectful to others. I will make sure to improve my behavior by {whatever you will do}. I would like you to let my classmates know that I am sorry for my inappropriate behavior during their time to talk.
Sincerely, {your name}

I got drunk and had a birthday drink with my son's dad and left my boyfriend outside. He now thinks I chose my ex over him. How can I show him I'm sorry if he won't see me or talk to me?

wikiHow Contributor

Give him a little time, then go to see him in person and ask to talk. You can't make him forgive you, but if you sincerely apologize (and if you haven't been a repeat offender with things like this), there's a good chance he'll make up with you.

My friends made fun of a guy I like, and he seems kind of irritated. I told my friends to apologize, but they said it was a waste of time. I tried to talk to him, but he won't even acknowledge me. What should I do?

wikiHow Contributor

Tell him that you're sorry, that you like him and that you don't agree with the way your friends talked about him. He will likely get over it soon enough. If anyone makes fun of him again, stand up for him. If he still refuses to talk to you despite your efforts to be kind to him, he's probably not worth wasting your time on.

I told my crush that I don't like him, but it was a lie. I have tried apologizing, but he is ignoring me. What should I do?

wikiHow Contributor

Try talking to one of his friends. Tell them how you feel and ask them to tell your crush that you're sorry. You might also just have to give him a little time to get over his hurt feelings. It will probably blow over, and then you can try talking to him again.

Either immediately, and genuinely, with politeness and brevity, or afterwards in a letter. You can always send a letter to the restaurant or wherever the person works, detailing the situation and listing the reasons why you're sorry and what you have learned, as well as how you hope to not repeat this is the future.

Warnings

The largest concern is that your apology may not be accepted and the relationship may be forever lost or degraded.

It is also possible that the person may remain very angry or hurt despite your apology. In this case you may see results later if you are patient, but you may not. To avoid this, never apologize immediately after doing some bad things such as making a personal attack causing the person to cry. In this sort of case, save any apologies for later.